Wow.
Nevada State Senate to Consider Goundbreaking Heroin-Assisted Treatment Program
Last week, Nevada State Senator Richard Segerblom introduced groundbreaking legislation, Senate Bill 275, which creates a four-year heroin-assisted treatment pilot project.
Heroin-assisted treatment, also known as heroin maintenance, refers to the supervised administration by a doctor of pharmaceutical-grade heroin (diacetylmorphine) to a small group of chronic heroin users who have failed more traditional forms of treatment including abstinence-based models and medication such as methadone.
Pretty amazing to see, although you can bet it’s going to face some very stiff opposition. If it were to happen, we could be in a position to demonstrate here in the U.S. just how stupid our policies have been.
As Ethan Nadelmann notes:
“All that stands in the way of starting such programs in our country is backward thinking and drug war ideology.â€
Yep.
.
.
I just wanted to remind everyone that this Sunday, March 22, is Substance Abuse Prevention Sunday!
HAT is a success everwhere it is trialled.
The Swiss even setup HAT prgrams in some of their prisons.
http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/-without-the-heroin-programme-i-d-probably-be-dead-/37819830
Probably the most ridiculous response from US officials regarding the success of HAT like programs in other countries is: “But something like that would not work in the US”. As if Americans are some strange resistant breed of humans and only a form of war works in stamping down the heathen hordes of dope fiends.
Ethan Nadelmann’s simple, dead on summation that “backward thinking” is what has prevented programs like HAT from being tried. But like lava flowing toward the cardboard homes of backward thinking drug warriors, the tide has shifted and they can become forward thinking or be consumed. There is no other choice. But as many of us know, the majority of drug war proponents will just go down like rats on a sinking ship. Fine, it’s their funeral.
HAT certainly seems like a logical next step to follow marijuana-legalization but doesn’t heroin’s Schedule I status preclude it from being used medically?
I was thinking that any state-level implementation of HAT would need to substitute morphine or fentanyl in order to get around the scheduling issue.
…couldn’t they call it a scientific experiment?
.
.
Compassionate IND. Think Irv, George, and Elvy. Heck, just think CBD in the form of Epidiolex.
Put warning labels on all drugs,,none of them kill as many as alcohol or tobacco.
.
.
Warning: use of this compound may cause delusions, conniption fits, and holier than thou bloviation in other people if they find out you’re using it for medicinal need or even just for enjoyment.
—————————
Well, well, well, can you guess who’s calling out the UN and the Single Convention Treaty? Oh, probably not even if I give you 192 guesses.
Doesn’t heroin being a Schedule 1 controlled substance, with no accepted medical use, also stand in the way? By trying to use heroin medically, wouldn’t they have all the same problems and be fighting all the same battles as with MMJ?
I think its some real valid thinking on this Tony. There is no road map for reversing the insanities of prohibition and the warped thinking that has kept the drug(s) war in place. Trying to find a way out of it is something like trying to pick a lock on a chastity belt. Here you need the 7 rings of power to get the key.
Huh….seems kinda like a long shot, there especially…
For those who are not aware, heroin is just a way of administering morphine. It is the morphine molecule with minor additions. The body rapidly converts it to morphine. So, when anybody talks about heroin, they are for practical purposes talking morphine. As for the US scheduling, it is not true that heroin has no acceptable medical use. It is still used in Britain and is particularly effective for the pain of childbirth. Australia (and other countries no doubt) were bullied by the US to stop using it in the early 1950s. There was apparently fierce opposition by the medical fraternity. By saying incorrectly that a substance has no medical value creates the basis for demonising it. This “medicalising” of its use is of course complete rubbish, as it is a safe drug (apart from constipation). Being physically dependent on it does not carry the serious risks that alcohol and tobacco use has. A “treatment” regime is of course a step forward, but it still facilitates the existance of the black market, as those not able to enter the program must still get their drug of choice illegally.